Artificial intelligence helped researchers design microneedle patches to restore hair in bald mice

Hair loss is undesirable for many men and women, since a person's hairstyle is often closely associated
with his confidence.
While some people embrace it, others want to grow their lost hair
again.
Now, researchers at Nano Letters have used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict compounds
that can neutralize the scalp's reactive oxygen species that cause hair loss.
Using the best candidate material, they constructed a proof-of-concept microneedle patch and effectively regenerated hair
in mice.

Most people with massive hair loss suffer from androgenetic alopecia, also known as male or female pattern
baldness.
In this case, hair follicles may be damaged
by androgens, inflammation, or excess reactive oxygen species such as oxygen free radicals.
When oxygen radical levels are too high, they destroy the body's antioxidant enzymes, which are normally used to control oxygen radicals
.
Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is one such enzyme, and researchers recently created SOD mimics
known as "nanozymes.
" But so far, those compounds that have been reported do not remove oxygen radicals
very well.
So Lina Wang, Zhiling Zhu and colleagues wanted to see if machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, could help them design better nanoenzymes
to treat hair loss.

The researchers selected transition metal thiophosphate compounds as potential nanoenzyme candidates
.
They tested machine learning models with 91 different combinations of transition metals, phosphates and sulfates, which predicted that MnPS₃ had the most powerful SOD-like capabilities
.
Next, manganese, red phosphorus and sulfur powders
were synthesized based on ₃ by chemical vapor phase transport.
In preliminary tests on human skin fibroblasts, nanosheets significantly reduced levels of reactive oxygen species without causing harm
.

Based on these results, the team prepared a mouse model
of MnPS3 microneedle patch for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia.
Within 13 days, the mice regenerated coarser hairs and more densely covered their previously bald backs
than mice treated with testosterone or minoxidil.
The researchers say their study has both produced a nanoenzyme therapy for hair regrowth and demonstrated the potential
of computer-based approaches in future nanoenzyme therapy designs.

The author was supported
by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province.

“Machine Learning Guided Discovery of Superoxide Dismutase Nanozymes for Androgenetic Alopecia”